Gambling and Social Cognition: a Systematic Review

AbstractPurpose of ReviewThe aim of this article was to review current research regarding social cognition (SC) in gambling disorder (GD), to (i) compile and synthetize the current state of existing literature on this topic, and (ii) propose cognitive remediation therapy approaches focused on SC for clinicians.Recent FindingsIt is well known that disordered gamblers show impairment regarding non-social cognitive functions such as inhibition, attention, and decision-making. Furthermore, patients with substance use disorders also present certain deficits regarding social information processing which are difficult to differentiate from the intrinsic toxic effects linked to drugs or alcohol consumption.SummaryTo date, relatively little research has been undertaken to explore SC in gambling disorder (GD) with neuropsychological tasks. Preliminary results suggest impaired non-verbal emotion processing, but only one study has directly measured SC in GD. As a consequence, future research on this framework should propose diverse measures of SC, while controlling for other factors such as personality traits and subtypes of disordered gamblers.
Source: Current Addiction Reports - Category: Addiction Source Type: research